


in the distance, howling

by gigantic



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Hunters, Demons, M/M, Magic, Road Trips, Safer Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-16 20:00:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11259936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gigantic/pseuds/gigantic
Summary: Auston and Zach won't stop searching.





	in the distance, howling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [void_fish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/void_fish/gifts).



They drive to Boise from the east coast almost non-stop, trading off on who gets to sleep in the backseat. The word is that there’s a pretty nasty guy eager to recruit an elite werewolf pack. He’s gaining a lot of notoriety for being ambitious, for being outspoken. 

“You have to appreciate a good mythos,” Auston says, glancing at the speedometer. They're pushing 100 miles per hour. He doesn't take his foot off the gas.

Zach says, “He sounds reckless.”

“That, too.”

When they make it to Idaho, they don't find the horde they're looking for. It takes them two days to put down the lackeys left behind, and at the end of it, they find a skinwalker who’s being held and examined, picked at.

Her name is April. She says, “They kept me out of it. I think it’s about being able to change at will.”

“Like, maybe you’d have a more effective killing team if you didn’t need to worry about the moon?” Zach suggests. It wouldn’t be the first time they've heard that kind of thing from a wolf.

April takes the bottle of water Auston offers and chugs for a minute. “Yeah,” she finally says with a gasp. “It’s just a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised. Thank you.”

“Did they have a ring leader? Any other hostages?” Auston asks.

“I’m not sure who was in charge.” April tugs at the hoodie around her shoulders, another item courtesy of Auston’s trunk. She looks tiny in it. “There were a couple other people held with me — I think. I’m sorry, it’s hard to remember clearly.”

“Did they give any hint about where they might be going?” Zach asks.

April squeezes her eyes shut, clearly trying to focus. “They mentioned the sunshine. South, I think. It might've been the desert.”

“Let’s go.” Zach spins on his heels and starts away, pulling up short like it’s taken a moment to remember himself. “Sorry,” he says. “I hope you're alright.”

“I’ll be fine,” she says. “I’m lucky you showed up.”

“Thanks for your help,” Auston says. He gestures at the hoodie. “Keep that, alright? I’ll get another one.”

They drive south a lot slower. Zach taps his fingers on the armrest and jiggles his leg, unable to lose the sense of urgency, but it’s hard to rush when they're not sure where they’re going.

**

Auston went to Michigan for sports and school. Nothing too out of the ordinary. He was pretty good at baseball and hockey, and one of those things gave him a chance to see someplace different than home.

Dylan and Zach were inseparable. It was impossible not to think of them as a package deal. The only time they weren't attached at the hip was when Dylan got wrapped up in wrestling with their teammates. Zach usually got bored of that pretty quick, likely to come sit by Auston when he tapped out. Together, they laughed at how ridiculous their friends looked rolling around in the grass or on the floor or on the ice, even, a couple times.

“One day your boy’s going to start something he can't finish,” Auston had said once. They were still in light jackets, the autumn air sharp in his lungs, smelling like wet dirt.

Zach snorted, watching Dylan get toppled by Matty in a piled of crunchy, dead leaves. They were both going to be a mess later. “Look, he’s already losing.”

Auston laughed. “Why does he always challenge when he knows he almost never wins?”

“Because he knows I’ll eventually pull him out.” Zach shook his head, a half-smirk on his face like it amused him.

It wasn't a special response then, but Auston’s thought of it a lot the past couple years. Thinking about high school now feels old and quaint, like someone’s storybook version of what being a teenager is supposed to be like. Auston can't really even relate to it anymore. 

He still has Zach around. Sometimes he wonders if Zach remembers having that conversation. He wonders if he feels that way each time they pull into a new town, but he never knows how to fix his mouth to actually ask. 

Zach would probably say this is nothing like that, anyway.

**

Two weeks of wandering and hoping for clues eventually leads them into the southwest, past San Diego and nearly to the border. They meet bordershifters through this family with a sick aunt. They're kind enough, but the demon hoping to get to the decaying soul first is a nightmare.

They shouldn't let themselves get dragged into it, but it’s hard not to feel empathy for bordershifters. They're mostly harmless. Being from Arizona, Auston had a couple friends growing up who believed in certain legends before he ever found out spirits existed in the real world. Plus, his mom used to say sometimes that her mother’s sister always thought herself a witch.

“Not very good,” his mom would say, amused. “She tries hard.”

The bordershifters make him think of home, in a way. He hasn't been back in a while.

Luckily, Auston only has a mild concussion after their fight alongside the shifters. Zach has a deep gash on his arm, but it’s better than the demon taking his arm clean off like it tried.

“I’m fine,” Zach says, shrugging Auston off when he tries to examine the damage. “Let me drive for a while.”

They don't cover much ground over the next week. Auston actually takes a few day naps for a change, accidentally tipping over and slumping against Zach while they're stuck in traffic. 

The lazy pace gives them more opportunity to really scrutinize each other’s bumps and bruises. Auston spends a lot of time watching Zach as it is, but when he’s avoiding TV, reading and his phone to do his brain a favor, it’s easier to notice that the gash on Zach’s bicep seems to stay raw and red for three days straight.

Auston feels confident enough to say, “You're cursed.”

“No, I’m not,” Zach says, but he pulls at his shirt sleeve, trying to get a better look at his bandages.

“Come here,” Auston says, motioning Zach over. “Let me see. I’m better at wrapping it anyway.”

Zach moves his bandages and peroxide over to the table where Auston’s sitting. He pulls the chair closer, and Auston leans in to really look at the wound. Touching around the edges of torn skin makes Zach hiss.

“That blade had to be spelled,” he says. Zach winces as Auston cleans the wound. 

“It was worth it,” Zach says. 

Auston’s careful. He doesn’t want to hurt Zach any more than he needs, and he doesn’t want to risk infecting it more than it might already be.

“Still,” he says. “We don’t know if the magic’s toxic, too. We should go see Niko.”

Zach recoils a little. “Drive back up north? We haven’t picked up the trail here.”

“And we might not.” Auston begins to loop the bandage around Zach’s arm, keeping it firm without cutting off circulation. “We can come back if we need to, you know?”

“I’ll be okay. We can find some witch out here and ask them.”

“Look, I’d feel better if we went back to Michigan,” Auston says. “Niko knows you, and he’s gotten really good.”

Zach sighs and turns his head away. He never quite sulks, but the closest Auston ever sees him come is any time they need to go back through his hometown. He swallows and clears his throat as Auston finishes up with a pat. 

“Alright,” Zach says. “Quick, though. And then we get back to it.”

**

The first incident happened during the school year, but it was on the WMU campus. Auston found out about it because Zach had panicked when he couldn’t reach his brother.

“It’s alright,” Dylan had said. He kept a hand high on Zach’s back, between his shoulder blades. Auston couldn’t help but notice the way he stroked gently. Reassuring. Zach didn’t really even seem to register it, focused on dialing Brad repeatedly.

For 40 minutes, Zach couldn’t reach him. Neither could his parents. Finally, Brad’s number popped up on Zach’s phone, and he answered the call with, “What the _fuck_ , Brad? We thought something happened to you.”

Brad was alright, it seemed. He was having trouble describing what he’d seen of the commotion, though. Zach put him on speakerphone, and his voice cut through suddenly, saying, “--or being by these, I don’t know. I guess they were people, but it was fucked up. Just out of nowhere. I saw this kid in my stats class. Tore right into his shoulder.”

“Who? A person?” 

“I guess. Z, I’m telling you. It’s really tough to explain, because it was nuts.” Brad cursed under his breath. “We’re in my buddy’s dorm. They’ve got this lockdown now. It was crazy for awhile, I’m sorry.”

“As long as you’re safe now,” Dylan chimed in.

“Is that Dyl? D-Boss! You know it takes a lot to get me down,” Brad said. The tension eased in Zach slightly, hearing him loosen up. Auston nearly reached out to touch just below where Dylan’s palm still lay, as if he could help work the fear out of him. 

As Dylan chatted with Brad more, asking questions, Auston craned forward and asked Zach, “Are you okay?”

Zach seemed stunned. But he nodded. “I’m good. He’s not hurt, so. I’m good.”

In the weeks after, university officials blamed it on drug use. Bath salts and other homemade cocktail drugs. Once the curfews were relaxed, Brad spent most of a weekend hanging out with them and said, “It sort of makes sense. You’ve seen the stories about dudes who get fucked up and eat people’s faces off.”

“To have it happen to a whole group of people, though?” Dylan asked, scrunching his nose.

“The case against _not_ sharing your friend’s drugs.” Brad steepled his fingers, mock-wise. He shrugged. “I’ll stick to beers, personally.”

It wasn’t clear if they had been students or visitors — friends of a possible student. The story became part of the gossip mill, but the news reported that everyone injured in the fray recovered swiftly. Time dulled the interest until suddenly the end of the school year crept up, and then all anyone wanted to talk about was summertime.

**

Niko’s out of UMich now. Auston always hopes that not actually being back on campus will alleviate what makes Zach anxious about returning, but proximity is still a problem. Niko doesn’t live quite far enough away either.

“Come in!” he says brightly when Auston knocks on the door. He looks up and grins when he sees them. “He-ey, boys. Thought that was probably you.”

“Is this a good time?” Auston asks. 

“Yeah, of course. Big Z texted me about you guys coming here.” He leads them through the living room and into the kitchen. It’s a nice rental house, pretty spacious. There’s a mix of ordinary kitchenware and the kind of charms and talismans Auston’s only started to learn more about through collaborating with Niko.

“Kind of cluttered in here, huh?” Zach looks at some magazines and junk mail on the counter, collecting them into a neat pile. 

Rolling his eyes, Niko says, “I forgot I should get the place spotless before Z comes over.”

Zach’s mouth puckers. He says, “Shut up,” and looks over to Auston, squinting at the amused smile that’s crept across his face. “What?”

Auston holds up his hands in surrender. “I’m just looking at you.”

“I’m not funny,” Zach says, not quite huffy but taking off his shirt and plopping down in a chair in a way that makes Auston and Niko laugh more. 

“God, I miss you, Z,” Niko says, bringing a bowl of steaming water over to the table. He turns a chair around and settles beside Zach, carefully picking at the edges of his bandage wrap. 

Zach sounds chagrined as he says, “You have Brad.” He clears his throat. “He’s not back yet?”

“Nah. He’s on his way, but he took his sweet time getting through Canada. That dude we found there is legit, though. Real dragon scales. Brad showed me a couple on FaceTime.” Niko cuts through the bandage and sucks his teeth when he sees the cut. “That demon sliced you good, man.”

“It doesn’t hurt that bad.”

“But it’s not getting better,” Auston says. 

Niko nods. “Yeah, this looks fucking nasty. It’s good you came to me.” He glances up and then pats the table. “Sit down, Auston. Catch me up.”

Zach goes pretty quiet while Niko works. Auston doesn’t mind picking up the slack, telling him about their trip through Minnesota to Idaho and down. “Wait, we didn’t call you guys about what made us head west in the first place, right?” Auston says and doubles back. 

He keeps an eye on Zach and how he can’t really relax, holding himself uncharacteristically still. Zach has always been quieter. Auston can relate. They’re neither of them withdrawn, but they’re also not loud guys, and yet this stillness is different, apprehensive. Zach balls the fingers in his left hand and uncurls them, over and over, like he’s counting. Self soothing.

Auston shifts his seat closer as he talks. He works his fingers underneath Zach’s hand, holding on.

“Is it hurting?” Niko asks after a minute, glancing down.

“It’s tolerable,” Zach says. “Do what you have to do.”

He doesn’t let go of Auston’s hand.

Breaking through the curse takes a couple hours. Niko tries three different spells and charmed objects before Zach hisses and curses, the sting of it ramping up before the magic lets him go. He’s gasping after, like he’s run 10 miles while sitting still. 

“I got you, I got you,” Niko says. “It’s gone now. You’ll feel better.” 

He grabs a bowl and starts mixing up plants and dirt or whatever to make a rank poultice. Zach exhales deeply as Niko pastes it over the cut. 

“What is in that?” Auston asks. “It’s disgusting.”

“Salvation, bud.” Niko’s smiling. “Look at him. It helps, right?”

Zach nods, inhaling slowly. “Yeah. Thanks.”

“Any time.”

As Niko cleans up everything, he says, “You guys should stay the night tonight. Brad will want to see you, you know? He’ll be back in the morning.”

Auston re-wraps Zach’s arm for him to keep the poultice in place. He glances up to make eye contact with Zach, trying to gauge how he’s feeling. He says, low, “We don’t have to if you think we should make good time.”

They don’t know where they’re going next, but he knows how big an ask it always is to get Zach to come back here. He can help make an excuse to leave if that’s what Zach really needs.

“Come on. I know you want to see your bro.” Niko turns off the kitchen faucet and shakes his hands out, rubbing them on his pants to get them completely dry. 

Zach swallows. “Um. Yeah,” he says. “I can stay.”

“You’re sure?”

“Mhm,” Zach says. “It’s one day, right?”

**

Zach still has nightmares. It’s hard to get used to something like that, a guy who wakes up hollering in the middle of the night, but Auston’s at least conditioned himself to wait a beat before reaching for the gun he keeps stashed under the pillow next to him. Only one. There’s a fine line between cautious and stupid.

It happens less when they’re further away from Michigan. He’s not surprised that Zach has a bad bout in Niko and Brad’s guest room. Auston sits up straight on the couch. He grabs his gun and carefully moves through the first floor to head into the room. Zach’s still lying down, mostly unconscious. Auston sets his gun on the bedside table and climbs in next to him, wrapping his legs around Zach and murmuring calming words.

“It’s okay. Z, wake up. Open your eyes, you’re okay,” he says.

Zach startles awake. He flips them around, hand going around Auston’s throat, and Auston drops his hands back on the bed, palms up. The recognition hits Zach belatedly.

“Oh, my god. Fuck, I’m sorry,” he says and clamors close, hugging Auston instead. Auston brings his arms around Zach too, rubbing along his spine. 

Niko shows up at the door, panicked but quiet. He raises his eyebrows, jerking his head toward Zach. Auston tries to nod and mouths that he’s got it. He’s used to this. They’ll just go in the morning.

**

Auston wasn’t there for the second attack. Before the school year ended, he and Zach had talked about whether or not they’d come back next year. The seniors were moving on, guys like Dylan, Louis and Anders heading to college. Auston would miss his friends, but he let the idea of running things more get him excited now that the summer loomed.

“We’ll get it done,” Zach said. “It’s me and you now.”

Maybe Auston had let himself like that part of it, too. 

A few weeks later, Zach called. The updates were normal until he said he had decided to accelerate his courses. 

“You’re leaving, too?” Auston asked. He didn’t do a very good job of keeping the disappointment out of his voice.

“UMich really wants me there for the fall. They think I’m good enough to make the team now,” Zach said and hummed a little as he paused. “They said I could live with Dylan.”

Auston couldn’t begrudge Zach that. He didn’t. But it meant things were different when he showed up in Ann Arbor in the fall. He stepped up on his own. It meant Zach called him terrified in October, saying, “He’s gone. I think they took him, I don’t know, fuck. I can’t find him,” because he was with Dylan when everything went to shit and Auston was too far away to help.

**

Zach’s still pressed to his side when Auston wakes. It’s hot in the room, somehow, the window condensing and diffusing the light that filters across the bed. He’s not uncomfortable enough to push Zach away, grateful for the quiet and the even way his breaths cut across Auston’s neck.

Sometimes Auston wonders what will happen if they find Dylan. He thinks about Zach getting a good night’s sleep for the first time in years. He thinks about not getting this again, and then he ends that train of thought abruptly. His stomach growls. Breakfast is better to consider. 

Brad ruins the calm. He comes into the house like a whirlwind, babbling about dragon scales with Niko and saying, “Where are they? Down the hall?”

Auston can hear him coming, but he doesn’t make any move to prepare. Brad bursts in and says, “Holy shit, I must’ve died on the road. They’re actually here.”

He jumps onto the bed, startling Zach. “Ow! What the fuck!” 

Brad would be in danger if Auston didn’t have Zach held tight. Instead he has free reign to tickle and bully him onto his back, stealing a hug for himself. “Z! Little bro finally comes home.” 

“It hasn’t been that long,” Zach says, voice sleep thick and moody. “Move. I’m hot.”

“It’s been fucking _forever_. Let me have you.” Brad ignores all of Zach’s weak protests. He gives in after a minute, hugging Brad back, and then sighing deeply. 

Auston helps Niko make breakfast. Eggs and fried ham. Toast. Basic. Brad’s busy pulling out his spoils from Canada and talking through each item. He lets Zach turn them over and polish the stones, the methodical work giving him something to do with his hands while Brad recounts the whole trip.

“What can you even do with dragon scales?” Zach asks. 

“What can’t you do?” Niko says. 

Auston says, “Protection spells, right? Or make totems.”

“A ton,” Brad says. “So much. I’m starting with stronger wards for this house, me and Niko. We want it to be a homebase. You guys don’t have to restock on the go as much.”

“Hmm,” Zach says thoughtfully, critical. Auston can see the “no” in the creases on his mouth, but it goes unsaid for the moment. 

Brad goes to his bag and rummages through. “He also — gave me this.” He holds up a small bottle of glimmering liquid. “Siren venom.”

“How the hell do you get that and get out alive?” Niko asks. 

Brad shakes his head. “I don’t know, but he did. She’s in Nashville, he said. She used to move between Canada and New York, but — oh, that’s what I wanted to tell you! A lot of these monsters are moving south. There’s some guy, I don’t know. All the creepy fuckers are excited about it.”

Zach’s attention has perked up. “Werewolves?”

“No, I don’t know. Maybe? It didn’t seem like just wolves. It’s a lot,” Brad says. “The rumor is they’re trying to create a foothold. Convincing monsters to band together to create a safe haven.”

“A community of creatures,” Auston says and scoffs. “On Saturday nights we open the gates of hell for fun.”

Brad laughs. “Hey, I’m just saying. Don’t knock it ‘til you try it, right?”

“It might not be our group,” Zach says, looking to Auston.

Auston shrugs. “But it could be connected.”

“Yeah, I thought you might want to look her up. Ask her some questions.” Brad sets the venom down and nudges Zach’s arm. His hand grazes the bandage as he asks, “How are you holding up?” but it feels more loaded than that. 

Zach says, “I’ll be alright.” He moves his arm experimentally. “Feeling a lot better already thanks to Neeks.”

“You know I’m always here for you, baby.” Niko winks from across the room. He manages to get a half-smile out of Zach, and Auston lets himself hope for a second that Zach might eventually be okay with having a base here. Maybe Auston could convince his own family to relocate up this way, too.

“Any good leads?” Brad asks.

Frowning, Zach says, “Not good enough.” 

Brad shakes his head. “Well, hopefully this is just what you need.”

**

Nashville is lively and beautiful, and it’s the first place where Auston loses his mind. Approaching sirens isn’t something to do lightly.

He doesn’t realize he’s losing it. Auston doesn’t think twice about the decisions he’s making the week they’re in Music City until Zach has him face down on concrete with a gun to back of his head. There’s a flicker of disquiet, the world suddenly skewed wrong, and then he thinks he wouldn’t be in this position if he’d just killed Zach weeks ago.

Wait. There’s water soaking into the front of his shirt. Somewhere a woman is laughing. Wait.

“You have to fight it,” Zach is saying. “Whatever she said to you. She couldn’t have changed everything.”

“I didn’t have to do anything,” the woman says. Alicia. Right. “You know who Zach really is.”

She’s right. Alicia’s always put Auston first, and Zach never has. He’s followed Zach around for months on end, and he’s still playing second fiddle to a ghost. Zach is selfish. He’ll never let Auston move on either, needy and demanding. There’s only one way this ends. 

Zach says, “You’re my friend.”

“More lies,” Alicia says. “Look at you. He’s got you under control. Again.”

Auston hauls back and throws Zach off. They’re too evenly matched to best one another outright, but he can win. The gun goes skittering over pavement. Zach catches his jaw with a right hook, but Auston catches his leg and pulls him down again before he can reach the weapon. They’re dirty and sweating, and maybe Zach hates wrestling because he was actually never any fucking good at it either. 

“Please,” Zach says when he knows he’s lost. Auston gets the gun first, holding it to Zach’s face. 

“You can be free,” Alicia says, her voice a soothing lilt. She hums between words. This city lives up to its name. She sings. There’s been music in his head for days. 

Zach exhales shakily. “You’re in there somewhere. I know you are. Auston, please. It’s me and you, right?” 

Me and you. It’s just me and you, Auston thinks, the phrase rattling around in his head. He sees Alicia in his mind, 16 and smiling until he blinks, and it’s Zach’s face instead. The images flicker faster and faster, the music in his head gets louder. 

“Hey,” Zach says. “Do you remember? You do, don’t you?”

Auston’s hand is shaking. He’s afraid to put the gun down, but the world tilts again, everything tipped off balance. “Z.”

“Yeah, it’s me. You can fight it.”

“If you won’t handle this, I will,” Alicia says. 

The music disappears, like being doused in ice cold water, and in the next second it comes back painful. Auston winces, and Zach hollers. Auston’s brain feels like it’s on fire. His fingers start to shift on their own, a few short movements away from taking a shot. The hammer cocks. Struggling against his own body takes everything he has, his arm flinging out gracelessly just as he squeezes the trigger.

The bullet catches her in the shoulder. Auston falls to his knees, his mind clearer. He hadn’t realized he hasn't been himself until now, the moment he gets control back, panting as Zach moves to subdue Alicia before she can recover.

**

Sometimes Auston pulls the trigger on the wrong person. He sees it as plain as day, his fingers sure and swift. He doesn’t jerk his arm to the side in time, and Zach is looking him right in the eyes, begging just before Auston fires.

“Zach!” Auston says, breathless. He sits up, the darkness of his nightmare thrown suddenly into harsh light.

“Calm down. I’m right here,” Zach says. He sits on Auston’s bed, hand hovering near his skin but not quite touching. “See? We’re okay.”

Auston’s shaking. He lunges forward and pulls Zach into a hug. “Sorry. Fuck, I’m so sorry.”

“Why? You didn’t do anything.” Zach holds him just as tightly. 

“I could’ve killed you.” Auston doesn’t know how he could live with himself if he’d lost Zach.

Pulling back to look at him, Zach says, “It wasn’t you. Alright? It was her.”

Logically Auston knows this, but that doesn’t change the memory of holding that gun to Zach. It doesn’t change the way he felt in the moment, righteous and sure. He doesn’t know how to reconcile what’s false when it felt so real. 

Zach touches his face. “Hey. Don’t get lost in your head. You’re with me. I’m _fine_.”

Being on the other side of this routine would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. In the years since they left Michigan together, this is what they’ve become: fighting monsters in the dark because maybe it’ll lead to Dylan, maybe it’ll help them both go a little longer without sleeping. 

Auston’s heart keeps beating too fast, but Zach’s fingers on his face cut through the grogginess and adrenaline. Five small reminders. He’s still alive. They both are. Auston’s life has changed almost completely since that day Zach called him from UMich scared and at a loss for what to do. 

He’s still gripping Zach’s arms, holding on tight. Zach has been one of the few constants. He isn’t the same, but he’s steady and determined, and Auston hates that he almost couldn’t stop a stranger from coming between them.

“I’m sorry,” he says, leaning in. Their heads touch.

Zach murmurs, “Don’t be. We’re alright,” on repeat. Auston wonders if it’s meant to be personal reassurance as much as anything else. 

He loves Zach. Part of him has always known it, but these days he feels like a knot in his chest. One thing to hold on to when they spend so much time drifting around the country, sometimes over the border, looking for answers that might not exist.

Me and you, he thinks. A tether in chaos. 

Zach gasps when their mouths meet. He goes still, and Auston nearly retreats. Instead, Zach lunges forward, knocking Auston off balance. He crowds over him like a backdraft, one hot burst of energy. Auston can barely contain it, tugging at Zach’s shirt and trying to ride out the sloppy kiss. 

Pulling Zach’s shirt over his head makes them break for breath. He gazes down at Auston, panting slightly. Auston wants to ask if he’s sure, but he wouldn’t know how to answer that question if Zach turned it around on him. It’s less scary to reach up and pull Zach down, to buck his hips and swallow Zach’s moan as their hips collide. 

Cuts and bruises from life on the road overlap old hockey scars. Auston knows where most of Zach’s wounds have come from, but it feels different to see them like this, a wide expanse of skin and muscle. Zach sighs shakily as Auston pushes his fingers over his ribs, along his side and down the swoop of his back until he can break the waistband of his shorts, palm molding over the curve of his ass. 

Halfway undressed is the best they manage in the middle of the night. Zach works down their shorts enough to get to skin, rocking against each other in the dark. It’s maddening, winding Auston up but not quite getting him all the way there.

“Z,” he whines between kisses. He doesn’t mean to sound desperate, but Zach is so warm. This is beyond what he’s let himself imagine. 

Zach takes it as some sort of cue. He works his hand between them and strokes Auston’s cock. It’s too hot and too good, Auston muffling his moans with kisses as he comes over Zach’s fingers. Zach uses the slick and finishes himself like that. They’re a sticky, sweaty mess, and Auston feels almost weak with it, struck silent as he readjusts with Zach’s weight against him.

“Hey,” he starts, but he’s not sure what he means to say. Zach shows him mercy, kissing Auston another time and lingering long enough that Auston stops imagining he’ll slip away.

**

Surviving a siren has left them wrung out but not without a silver lining. Auston got glimpses of her own mind as she toyed with his, bending his memories. Snatches of her life plus going through her belongings while she was unconscious at least pointed them toward a new destination. Even better, Auston saw a name.

“Who do you think Theodore is?” Zach asks, sitting with his feet propped on the dashboard. He raises his voice, projecting so that Auston can hear while he pumps gas. 

“No idea,” Auston says. “I keep trying think through everything I saw, but nothing is standing out. That’s who she was looking forward to seeing at that party, though.”

Zach’s holding the page from her planner in his hand. There’s an address and a date. Underneath that, Alicia scrawled quick notes that implied an event of some kind. It’s scheduled for a couple weeks in the future. The gap gives them time to glean more information and to rest in case the gossip Brad heard about monsters amassing power and community is true. 

The journey feels almost mundane compared to most of what they’ve done the last few months. Auston has developed a knack for looking at the world through hunter’s eyes. He sees the demons and monsters. It’s strange and exciting to spend a few days really taking in all of the ordinary people living in spite of the danger. Auston used to think of phrases like “ignorance is bliss” in terms of family gossip, but two attacks on school campuses expanded his world in ways he couldn’t have predicted. So much of the world — oblivious. 

“Thank you,” he says to Zach when they stop in Atlanta. 

“For driving?” Zach stretches his arms over his head. His shirt pulls away from his waistband, exposing the slightest hint of skin. “It was my turn.”

Auston laughs softly. “For waking me up. You got me out of there. Right now I could still be in Tennessee with a siren who pretended to know me.”

Zach’s mouth stretches to the side. It’s almost a smile, a look Auston’s seen on his face a thousand times, like he’s picking over a quip he can’t decide on whether to speak out loud. When he does open his mouth, he simply repeats, “It was my turn.” 

“Well. I owe you.”

“You don’t, but you can buy me a drink if you want.” 

They’re both still underage in the States. Decent fakes come in really handy. Forgery is a skill Auston never envisioned himself honing, but being crafty helps when they can’t get materials from contacts they’ve made in a pinch. Zach has deft hands. Auston knew that on the ice, but it turns out it applies to details in made-up ID cards and licenses people only really want to give a once-over. 

There’s some kind of festival raging in the city. Parties that get too big give him a creeping feeling now, like trouble’s looming, but the commotion makes it even less likely anyone’s paying close enough attention to them in bars.

It’s been months since Auston got truly drunk. Together, they kill a bottle of vodka, and he can’t stop laughing at things happening around them. Zach does it, too, leaning in conspiratorially and pointing out some frat guys across the room who keep daring each other to drink gross combinations of alcohol and mashed up bar food. 

“That could be us right now,” he says. 

Auston scoffs. “No fucking way.” 

“Did your or did you not dare Brandon to drink a mug full of, what, spinach, Hot Cheetos and orange juice?”

“Some coffee in there, too.” Auston can’t stop snickering. “Other special ingredients.”

“Okay. My point.”

“ _I_ didn’t drink it, though,” Auston protests.

A semantics debate morphs into recalling and ranking their worst moments in school. Auston swears he isn’t a prankster, but Zach manages to come up with a surprising list of things he’s convinced their friends to do. 

“Including!” Zach shouts over Auston protesting and has to reel it back in. “Including the time you convinced Dylan to wrestle two of the step team guys who lived next door over the phone. You weren’t even there!” 

Auston doubles over laughing. Those videos had been incredible. Dylan didn’t stand a chance. Auston passed his phone around to the team after practice to make sure everyone else could enjoy it. 

“In my defense, I barely had to do anything. Dylan loves putting himself in impossible shit like that.”

Zach says, “Yeah,” wistfully, amused as he thinks back. He holds the smile for longer than Auston might’ve guessed, but the corners of his mouth eventually droop. Auston reaches out, touching Zach’s wrist on the table.

“Hey,” he says, pulling him back. “You want more?”

“Oh,” Zach looks down at his glass. “Yeah, maybe one.”

They toast to the city for their last drink. Auston nudges Zach out of his chair, getting them out of the bar before they can start to stew. They don’t get many breaks, really, these days. He doesn’t want to see Zach tip over into sadness when his shoulders are actually down for once. 

People are still milling about the streets. A gaggle of people skip down the boulevard with drums, and Auston holds his hands to Zach’s hips as they maneuver through the crowd, pulsing his grip in time with the beat. He can feel the way Zach laughs about it at one point and leans in.

“Are you ticklish?” he asks. They get stopped up at a bottleneck. Auston rests his chin on Zach’s shoulder. He smells good, somehow, despite the season and all the time they’ve spent cramped in the car.

“A little,” Zach says.

Auston never knew that about him. Never noticed. He lets his fingers push underneath the hem of Zach’s shirt, dragging over his skin and Zach shivers in the thick of body heat and warm night air. 

“Hold on,” Auston says when the crowd starts to work forward. He presses on Zach’s right side, coaxing him around. 

Zach’s cheeks are flushed. It’s visible even under the weird orange flourescent light of a nearby shop sign. Auston runs the back of his fingers over Zach’s cheek and settles his hand against Zach’s neck. He moves slow enough that Zach could halt him but the pause never comes. Zach tilts his head as Auston cranes closer, kissing him surrounded by people. 

It’s hard to parse the nerves coursing through him. He can’t tell if it’s just being with Zach or if it’s the remnants of a life where worrying about being in public mattered. Maybe it’s neither, the presence of who’s missing looming between them. The anxiousness dissipates the longer Zach kisses him back, stepping into Auston’s space more. 

They pick a motel for the night instead of continuing with the revelers. This time Auston sees all of Zach before they lie down, bringing down his pants and shorts. He sits while Zach stands, smoothing his thumbs over the faint jut of Zach’s hipbone. His lips chase the same path, and Zach sighs, his fingers carding through Auston’s hair. 

Auston bought condoms at a gas station in Chattanooga. He couldn’t make up his mind about whether to do it or not, wondering if he was being too presumptive as Zach put air in their tires outside. He’s never been sure about how much of Zach he’s allowed to have, convinced he’s always wanted more than he should. He’s glad he bought them now, tumbling around in sheets with too much starch. 

He’s elated as he rests Zach’s leg on his shoulder, opening him up and then feeling his breath hitch as Auston presses inside. Fucking Zach feels surreal. He’s tight and he whimpers sweetly, unable to hold the dam and keep silent the way he does so easily in the daylight. 

“God, Z,” he breathes, tucking his face against Zach’s neck. 

“Go faster,” Zach says. Pleads. “Let me feel it.” 

Auston does what he can. It makes the sex sound more obscene, skin slapping and Zach’s moans going staccato like porn. He still pulls Auston’s head up, though, wanting to kiss him softly. 

He’s a fucking marvel. Auston wants to tell Zach he needs him, the same way he’s wanted to do since he was sixteen, but he’s not stupid. He knows he might not be here, guiding Zach towards coming if they hadn’t needed to dive headfirst into hell. He’s not happy about a lot of what’s happened to them, but he’s thankful here, hot and desperate, that Zach clings to him and begs for more.

**

Sleep doesn’t come easier, but they manage to get a few more hours between accidentally jolting one another awake. Auston learns that Zach seeks out body heat. If they drift apart in the night, he’ll roll right back inward the second he’s even slightly conscious and resettle. It’s a behavior at odds with what Auston knows during waking hours. Zach’s always liked his space — not standoffish but contained, and yet at night he gravitates toward touch.

At first they only have sex at night, peeling back layers like the shedding of the day. Zach’s mouth is soft and inviting, and Auston enjoys spending the daytime looking forward to that almost as much as the actual kisses. Zach touches his hair in the dark after. It’s steady. Comforting. Auston falls asleep with Zach’s fingers in his hair more than once, letting the world fade away without needing to will himself to at least get a couple hours in feels like a revelation.

“This is probably why people go on vacation,” he says one night and Zach’s low laugh rumbles against him.

Rain storms start to roll in on a Wednesday. They use it as an excuse not to leave their motel room. Auston gets on his knees for Zach before lunchtime, sucking around the head of his cock while he strokes the shaft. Zach doesn’t make a lot of noise, biting into one hand while he rests the other over Auston’s skull, but a whimper escapes when he comes. The sound flutters, deeply felt. Auston swallows as he kisses along Zach’s thigh, his lips delicate and exploring until Zach pulls him up and shoves his hand in Auston’s pants to reciprocate.

He makes Zach come four times, spread out through the hours. He can’t remember the last time he was this indulgent about anything.

On Thursday the downpour gets more intermittent. They pack up and take a meandering path down, stopping at every pond or lake they come across. Zach says, “I’ve always wanted to see the Nagi, you know?”

It’s supposed to be easier to find them when it floods. Auston doesn’t know a lot about earth magic and traditions — neither of them do — but they also haven’t had much time to try to seek out the creatures that don’t want to kill them. That’s the problem with chasing tragedy.

They don’t find them, but the storms keep rolling through. When they make it down to the panhandle, there’s a basin closed off thanks to overflow. Zach doesn’t demand they seek it out, but the way his eyes shoot wider, excited, is as clear as anything else. 

There isn’t really a patrol. Easily ignored signs warn and forbid them. Auston ducks through an old gate just before the road starts to decline. From the top of the hill, it doesn’t even look like water’s really water they’re heading toward, just thick and sludgy vegetation.

“Careful,” Zach says. He curls his hand into the back of Auston’s shirt, staying latched as they make their way down. 

There are some bigger rocks and mounds of dirt as they get into the thick of it, away from the pavement. Auston reaches back and Zach grabs his hand, holding on a little tighter in case things start start shifting in the wet dirt. Zach still trips and falls into gunk anyway, laughing as Auston hauls him up, as if he couldn’t have drowned in mud.

After a few hours, Auston doesn’t expect they’ll see anything. He’s soaked and exhausted, egged on only by the look on Zach’s face, smoother than he’s seen in awhile. Kept busy and focused and engaged without any real threat.

It’s fitting that the few moments he spends in a dreamy stupor are when something bubbles up. He almost yells, caught off by scaly skin lacquered in decaying plants. But for the most part, the two creatures that pop up look human.

“Do you see that?” Zach thwaps Auston’s arm and points outward. “Look.”

“No, I see it,” Auston says. 

They get lower and watch, two figures cutting through the water and roughage. How smoothly they do it gives away that they aren’t average people. Even if Auston couldn’t make out the texture of their skin, he’d know just watching them move.

“I sort of want to talk to them,” Zach says, but he doesn’t call out. 

There are mixed stories about nagi. If that’s definitely them. Some say they bring prosperity and some say they bring doom. Auston likes to think it’s somewhere in between, benevolent figures who’ll either honor or condemn humans based on how people deal with them. They live underground but can be tracked by the rain, the kind of natural occurrence that could end drought or wash away homes. Auston thinks of them like that.

Zach’s mouth hangs slightly open. He seems entranced, observing the nagi like they’re dolphins coming out to say hi. He doesn’t even notice Auston chuckle at him, glancing to his right repeatedly just to watch him.

“What are you thinking about?” Auston finally asks. 

Taking a breath, Zach says, “If they’re happy. Not like — do you think this a break for them, coming to the surface? Like us right now, taking a timeout.”

Maybe. They could be using this as a way to stretch out, romp through the storm. They could also have reasons for being around, duties to carry out. Auston can’t quite guess at whether they’re young or old, but they aren’t small. Teenagers at the youngest, probably.

He says, “Feeling rebellious. Maybe they’re sneaking out.”

Zach’s mouth quirks, amused. “Yeah. I don’t know. Just looking for something.”

They watch for a few more minutes. The rain has let up, making the visibility a little clearer. It’s a better time to trek back to the road. 

“We should go,” Auston says. “Before they see us and think we’re a threat.”

They’re not searching for a fight today. Right now, they’re tourists. For once. Zach hums, acknowledging, but he lingers until Auston extends his hand to help pull him back to standing. Zach grabs on and hauls himself upright. Going back the way they came puts him in the lead now. Auston holds on and follows him through the mist.

**

Restlessness ramps up again as the date from Alicia’s notes looms larger. They use a more direct route as they drive south through Florida, and Auston doesn’t think either one of them gets any real sleep the night before.

Large cups of coffee push them through some last-minute daytime preparations. The only real words they exchange are about planning, and finally around 4pm that afternoon Zach says, “Alright. Ready.” 

Time to go.

Manalapan’s humidity has them sweating in their rented suits, but it doesn’t kill the novelty of having to blend in at a beachside banquet for once. Auston tugs at his cuffs and smooths his hands over his lapel. 

Zach spends too long working on his bowtie in the passenger seat, turning the rearview mirror to help make sure it’s neat. His fingers fumble over the fabric, and he scoffs, starting again.

“Need help?” Auston asks. 

“Ha ha.” Zach bites his bottom lip as he tries again. “I should just go without.”

Auston shakes his head. “For some reason, I think these people would see that as a dead giveaway.” 

“Too much personality,” Zach says, smirking. He swears under his breath, but the bowtie comes together finally. “Got it.” He draws his hands away, gesturing at his neck. “How’s it look?”

“Perfect,” Auston says. 

Zach reaches out and adjusts the knot of Auston’s tie. “And... you, too, now. Let’s go.” 

The property’s gorgeous. Auston has to stop himself from marveling too much as they walk toward it, matching pace with others arriving at the same time. The pathway gets a little crowded the closer they get, and Zach falls in step behind Auston, a familiar presence at his back. 

There’s a doorman greeting guests as they enter, but he doesn’t ask for invitations. It’s almost disappointing after how long Zach spent mocking up a fake just in case. He copied Alicia’s exactly. All the man does is ask if they’ll need anything stored in the coat room.

“No, thank you,” Zach says. “We’ll be fine.”

The doorman nods. “Please enjoy yourselves. The gallery on the top floor is closed tonight, but rest of the property, art and owner’s collection are open for you to explore.”

“Thanks,” Auston says. 

Auston isn’t much of an collectibles guy. He and Zach make an effort to tour the rooms quickly, getting the lay of the land. After they get their bearings, they jump right into flexing the story they came up with — who they know, how they know them, and as soon as it’s opportune, slipping in, “Have you seen Theodore? We haven’t had a chance to say hi.”

“Oh, I saw him out on the veranda,” the woman in front of them says. Lilian. She’s small but commanding, wearing impossibly high heels so that the her dress hits the floor just right. The way she tilts her head comes off as purposefully curious instead of suspect. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your names.”

“Richard,” Auston says. He touches his hand to Zach’s back. “This is Ben. It was nice meeting you.”

The main room is lined with windows that fold out to open up. The veranda gives way to grass and then to sand, a lighting display offering a glittering path down to the water. Auston’s been in some relatively big houses, but this feels like the sort of place a crew rents to shoot a movie. It’s hard to imagine that people wake up here every day and call it home. 

“Possession has its perks,” he says.

Zach scoffs, amused. “Do you think Lillian’s one of them?”

“Definitely.” Auston can’t help but glance at nearly everyone they pass, as if anyone might slip and shows the blackness of their eyes. “They all might be by now. It sounds like they’d been taking up in this place for a while.”

“What if he’s here?” Zach asks. It’s the most directly he’s acknowledged how close they could be. Years of searching, and now they’re surrounded by people acting as host bodies. They don’t know anyone here. They don’t even know what Theodore looks like, the supposed visionary in this eerie Stepford paradise. But they’d know one face. 

Auston says, “We’ll get him out.” 

They work the party longer than expected. Theodore is both in demand and somehow elusive. Everyone they mingle with says they’ve seen him in a different area of the property. After an hour, Auston has introduced Zach as his partner to so many people that one or two new faces come up and gleefully say, “Oh, you’re the couple from out west. Honeymoon?”

That isn’t exactly the story they sold, but Zach rolls with it easily, turning into Auston more. He laughs lightly at the man and woman in front of them. “Not quite. We got back a couple weeks ago.”

“Close enough,” says the woman. “What brings you here?”

“We thought we’d start our life together in a new place,” Auston chimes in. He lifts his arm, bracing Zach’s back and holding onto him. “We heard the property out here is gorgeous.”

“Well we can help with that. How fortunate, an in with the fresh blood in town,” she says. “Charlotte.”

“Pleasure.” Auston smiles. “Didn’t realize we were the people to know.”

“Oh, of course. Everyone knows everyone here.” Charlotte places her hand on Zach’s shoulder, grinning up at them. “It can become a little stale. So, getting new people — well. Might as well throw a feast in your honor.”

“How do you know Theodore?” the man asks at the same time Auston hears the tinkling of someone tapping a glass. “Oh, speak of the devil.” 

“Excuse me! Everyone, can I have your attention?” comes the voice. Zach spins on his heel so fast that Auston has to rock back a pace and keep him from throwing himself off balance. “I promise we won’t keep you long. I just wanted to make a toast.”

It dawns on Auston a second later. He looks away from Zach to the man presiding over the room from the staircase in the corner. “Dylan,” Zach says, low and breathless. Disbelieving. 

Auston can see him, too, though. He looks completely healthy, well-groomed. His suit is nicer than theirs. Zach starts to move forward, and Auston catches him around the middle.

“Wait, wait.” 

Dylan raises his champagne glass. “We’re here to celebrate progress. There are those who doubted this could be possible, and yet here we are for the already the third time this year, commending our aggressive expansion and initiating new believers in the vision.”

The ripple of polite clapping sends a eerie shiver along Auston’s spine. Zach feels like a ball of energy barely constrained in his arms. 

“This community,” Dylan continues, gesturing around, “is ours. We’ve expanded along this strip of land, but it’s one tiny piece of a puzzle starting to come together in many other places. Some of you here tonight are the representatives from those regions. Your work is invaluable, emboldening the people like us — spirits, wolves, vampires. We can come together and change this world. It’s already happening.”

A few cheers accompany the clapping this. There’s a buzz in the room. He can feel it start humming in his bones. “We should go,” he whispers to Zach.

Zach shakes his head. “I can’t leave him.”

“It might not be him.” He’s wearing Dylan’s face, but he’s commanding a crowd they can’t trust. They’re looking at him like a leader.

“Humans have had the upper hand for too long. We’ve been stuck in shadows, fighting each other for scraps. But let me tell you something.” Dylan bends forward, like he’s conspiring with the entire room. “We’re stronger than them.” He straightens, shrugging. “I think it’s time they find out.”

The applause grow more passionate. Auston starts to edge away, trying to coax Zach to follow. He makes it a couple feet, Dylan pressing on with his speech. 

“We can come back,” Auston says. “Or track him. We know where he is now, but we’re outnumbered.”

He’s right. They both know it. He can tell Zach’s caving to reason, letting Auston pull him toward the perimeter, toward an exit. It’s hard to remain casual about it while everyone’s attention is on Dylan — or this Theodore in Dylan’s body — but they have to get out of dodge.

“So let’s toast to how far we’ve come,” Dylan’s saying. People lift their drinks highs. Auston hopes it makes good cover. “To everything we’ve done, to everything glorious that’s yet to come.”

A man slides in front of them as they reach one of the entrances. Zach says, “Excuse us,” but he doesn’t move. He smiles.

Behind them, Dylan says, “And to the humans here to bear witness already.” When Auston glances over his shoulder, Dylan’s staring straight at him. “Going somewhere, guys?”

“Fuck,” Auston says. He and Zach share a moment of panic, making eye contact. Most of their supplies are still outside in the trunk. This was only supposed to be a recon endeavor. There’s only so much they could fit under suit jackets. 

“Watch your eyes,” Zach says, reaching inside his blazer. Auston turns his head and dips away at the same time Zach pulls out the flashbang to buy them a moment of time. 

Hell breaks loose. Fighting any one of these creatures is tricky enough when they’ve got the upper hand. Now it’s two against an assortment of monsters, all ready for a shot.

“Remember!” Dylan shouts. “We can use the bodies.”

Auston does his best to keep track of Zach. It’s near-impossible like this. He punches and kicks his way through as many bodies as he can. Someone still catches him on the arm, sharp incisors biting right through his clothes and flesh. He thinks he can feel the wound tear more when he yanks his arm away.

No time to think. Survive. He yells, “Z, I’m going for the bar!”

Auston’s big, but he’s worked hard to make sure he stays quick, too. He gets tripped and then kneed in the stomach and pushes to recover fast. It hurts like hell, his body held together by adrenaline and instinct. There’s a lighter in his pocket. If he gets to the alcohol, he can throw together more ammunition. 

He reaches for his own flash grenade and uses it to buy more distance. In the commotion, he slides around the back of the bar and knocks out the bartender. He mutters the steps as he pulls together what he needs, getting two bottle bombs ready. As Dylan hollers, “Move!” Auston peeks around the sides of the bar to surveil what’s happening.

Dylan forces his way through the creatures trying to pile onto Zach and hauls him out. “I said don’t kill them.” Auston misses the rest of what Dylan seems to say. He grabs Zach by the collar as he talks, impossibly strong. Auston pops up and calls out, “Zach!” as Dylan drags him outside.

He throws his two makeshift bombs — one at the other demons and monsters and the other at the curtains, settling them aflame. They’re thin enough that they burn right away, the fire spreading easily. It’s one lucky break in a room full of shit options. Auston uses the fire and black smoke beginning to plume to sneak out after them. He’s taken down once, twice, and he finally pulls his handgun from his holster to pop rock salt in enemy faces and crawl away. 

Outside, Dylan’s dragging Zach across the grass. Auston yells after them, running to catch up.

“Stop!” he hollers. “Let him go. Dylan, please.”

Zach struggles in his grip. He twists around and topples Dylan backwards, Auston rushing to catch up as Dylan tries to subdue him again. He clotheslines Dylan as he comes up to them, and Zach uses the opportunity to sit on Dylan’s arms, pinning him.

“We’re taking him home,” Zach says. “Let him go.”

“Sorry, your friend is unavailable right now,” is the response he gets. Dylan laughs in his face and bucks, nearly tossing Zach aside. 

Auston steps on his shoulder, pressing down into the ground. Dylan hisses, and Zach says, “Careful.”

“It’s not Larks.” It’s been more than three years. Dylan could be long gone. 

“He’s right,” Dylan says. “I’ve gotten really comfortable in here. The ones who fight you first are always the best.”

“Get out of him!” Zach demands. He reaches back and pulls his silver blade from where’s it’s tucked at his back. 

Dylan’s eyes get red, like fire burning behind the pupils. “Kill this body, and I’ll use someone else.”

“You’re not coming back from this.” Zach touches the knife to Dylan’s skin, a light stroke over his cheek burning the flesh. 

The pain forces a yell from Dylan’s mouth through grit teeth. It bubbles into a laugh, the demon spiteful even when he’s beat. “Smart. But you can’t stop this. There are too many of us now.”

Zach raises the knife. He shifts, poised to drive it into Dylan’s chest. “I’m sorry,” he says, so muddled that it’s almost indecipherable. 

Dylan’s smug grin fades. He blinks, doe-eyed and suddenly vulnerable. “Zach?”

It’s just enough to make Zach hesitate. “Dyl?”

Dylan’s worked his fingers down into the soil. He’s found enough leverage that when he surges up this time, they can’t keep him down. Auston’s spun. He can hear Dylan’s roar as he topples Zach back. When Auston rights himself, Dylan has the blade in his hand, grappling forward to overpower Zach, reversing the threat.

Zach feints and tries to dodge a following swipe, but he loses his balance trying to move backward. Dylan crawls over him, taking the knife up. Zach tries to block the first blow, but he gets caught on the forearm. He shouts and the grits his teeth, pleading, “Dylan, you don’t — _please_.”

Auston yells Zach’s name and charges back. He claws desperately for his own knife, brandishing it as fast as his fingers will let him.

“No — no!” Zach pleads, but Auston plunges it into Dylan’s back, pulling it right back out again.

The demon bellows. Auston wraps an arm around his neck during the brief moment he’s caught off guard and jams it into Dylan’s chest, into his heart. Dylan gurgles, choking on air, and Auston holds his body until it’s dead weight slumping to the side, onto the grass.

A deep, inhuman sound punches out of Zach. He moves to get to Dylan’s face, touching his shoulder and neck as he hovers. 

There’s blood on Auston’s hand. The blade runs just as red. He wipes both on his suit jacket and gives Zach space, the blur of it all making him feel strangely far away. Everything’s happened so fast. He had to save Zach.

A wave of feeling crashes into him belatedly. He’s breathless, bowled by a terrible mixture of relief and remorse. Ache. They came so close. 

“I’m sorry,” he says, mouths. There’s no sound behind it. Auston can’t quite make anything work right as he watches Zach touch Dylan’s face and start to sob. 

Auston forces his body to lurch forward. The least he can do is look Dylan in the eye, both to make sure the demon is down and to confront their loss. Zach’s face is tucked down, making mournful sounds into Dylan’s collar. It isn’t until Auston’s up close again that he can see the way the roots of Dylan’s hair are turning ashen. 

“Z,” he says, stunned. “Look.” He touches Zach’s hair, sliding his fingers down and urging him to pull away. “Something’s—”

“Huh?” Zach lifts his head and gasps, jerking away.

Dylan’s skin starts to wrinkle, too. It’s like he’s drying out rapidly. He goes from young to old, his face morphing quicker than makes any sense. He shouldn’t change at all. It hasn’t been long enough that his appearance would need to be preserved by magic, unless—

“It’s not him,” Zach says hollowly, the emotions catching up to him a beat late. “It’s not him.”

The sentence is firmer the second time. Dylan isn’t possessed. He isn’t even a vetala, his corpse reanimated and made to carry out someone else’s horrors. 

“A changeling?” Auston asks. They’ve heard that some push the rules about taking children, but Auston’s never seen it out in the world.

Zach looks at him, and Auston can practically see a light bulb go off. “To mimic him that well, he. Auston.”

“He’s still close by.” Auston looks back to the house “That top floor gallery. The attic.” 

Behind them, black smoke billows out of the ground floor. Some of the other monsters are spilling out, fleeing. Bold creatures will want to come after them, especially once they realize their host is dead. 

“Come on,” he says, moving toward the house.

“No, wait.” Zach grabs his arm. “Why was he bringing me out here? Maybe he’s keeping him somewhere else.” 

Auston sighs. “I don’t want to split up.”

“Then let’s start out here,” Zach says. “If we see nothing, we run inside.”

They have to be fast. Auston helps Zach up and pushes him around the side of the property. They search for a side door or a sort of crawl space. There’s a pool house detached from the main property, but it’s practically made up of glass windows. Even in the early night, with flames starting to flicker and illuminate it unevenly, Auston doesn’t see anything that looks like other humans. 

“What about this?” Zach asks. 

It looks like another entrance to the house, but it has its own gate. Auston says, “Maybe some kind of private entrance.”

He helps hoist Zach over the fencing. It’s hard for Zach to haul along from the other side, but they manage. Auston lands on his shoulder wrong, but time is never on their side. He winces through the pain without checking on it, forging ahead. Zach breaks the window in the door and reaches to unlock the reachable deadbolts. It takes him a few more minutes to pick the lock on the door handle. The fire hasn’t quite reached this area yet. It’s eerily quiet, a short hall leading to a staircase and up.

“Private entrance,” Auston confirms. 

The stairs take them up a couple storeys. At the top, one man is keeping guard, obviously surprised to see them. Zach throws the punches. Auston gets one blow across the back of his head, and Zach finishes him with a right hook.

They break the lock on a second door and walk inside. There are more paintings on the walls. Odd busts and trinkets are displayed just like in other areas of the house. They skip what looks like a private bathroom for a room a few feet away, a bedroom, and held in glass casing on the far side is what they’re been trying to find. 

“He’s here,” Zach says, rushing over. Dylan looks suspended in time, asleep and trapped in some alien aura. Zach uses one of the busts to smash the front of the glass box. Dylan slumps forward, the hazy light around him going out. Zach catches him, and Auston comes close to save them both from crumpling to the ground. 

Dylan’s breathing. He’s alive.

Outside, sirens are moving closer. 

“Let’s go,” Auston says. 

“He said he could get another body,” Zach says. “Do you think there are others?”

“Shit.” The wail of the sirens slithers steadily nearer. They don’t have time to check. Auston says, “We can’t keep looking. You’re sure it’s him, right?”

Zach touches Dylan’s head, tries to look at him more directly. “Yeah.” He nods and he huffs out one breath, audible disbelief. “Yeah, okay. Let’s take him.”

They don’t have time to try to wake him here, hauling his body up. Relief has to come later, the two of them fighting against fatigue and wounds to smuggle Dylan down to the ground level and away from danger.

**

They drive for three hours, Auston at the wheel while Zach sits tucked to one side in the back seat with Dylan stretched out and lying against him. Auston can hear him take in breaths occasionally, slow like he’s trying to encourage Dylan to keep doing the same. He glances in the rearview mirror, and he’s not even sure Zach moves much otherwise, his face tucked against Dylan’s hair.

Auston finally pulls over at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere. It’s not late enough that no other divers are around, so he goes to the trunk to get a gun and a fresh clip for Zach before he leaves to use the bathroom.

“Here,” he says, passing it through the window. “I’ll be right back. Are you okay on your own out here?”

Zach takes it and hunches down into Dylan’s space more. “Yeah, go. I’ve got him.”

Auston revels in the chance to stretch his legs and breathe away from the intensity of the evening. It feels indulgent to just pace back and forth outside of the restroom for a minute, trying to wrap his head around everything. Dylan’s in the car. They can’t really go to a motel with an unconscious man. Their best bet is to keep driving and hope he wakes up. That or just plan on going all the way back back to Ann Arbor…

He pull out his phone and dials. 

“Auston?” Brad answers. “What’s wrong?” 

For a moment, Auston’s stunned. It feels surreal to try to form the words, and he hesitates long enough that Brad says his name again, more alarmed. 

“We found him,” Auston says. “Dylan. He’s with us.”

“Are you serious?” Brad asks, urgent. “Is he okay? Oh, my god. Are you — Niko!” Brad’s voice moves away from the receiver a moment, then comes back. “Where are you? What happened?”

“We’re okay.” Auston clears his throat. “Mostly. Dylan’s not awake. Like some kind of coma. Pretty sure it was a changeling.”

“Holy shit.” 

“Come back! You're heading here, right?” he hears Niko say. Speakerphone. 

“Can I talk to Z?” Brad asks. 

Auston says, “Call him. He’s still by the car, I’m — I was going to the bathroom and realized we hadn’t checked in. We have to get back on the road. I don’t know if anyone was following us or trying to keep track.”

“Okay.” Brad mutters something under his breath, still as shocked as Auston feels. “Alright, be safe, okay?”

“Yeah.” 

He hangs up and uses the bathroom, hoping he’ll feel more settled. He’s said it aloud. It’s real. They made it out of that house. Auston washes his hands and leans on the sink after. His mind is humming. Nothing seems to get it under control, and he takes a moment to try to sort through the mess, uncaring about the other men who go in and out of the rest room. 

He stabbed Dylan. 

The image of Dylan collapsed on the grass and displayed in a case overlap in his mind. 

Auston shakes his hands out. There’s dried blood on his suit jacket. He shrugs out of it and glances around, finally heading back out into the night again to avoid scrutiny. 

As he gets closer to the car, he can hear Zach talking. He has his phone pressed to his ear, the glow illuminating the curve of his jaw. He’s saying, “It’s hard to tell. We can’t take him to a hospital yet, though. Not out here.”

Auston leans against the hood of the car to give him the illusion of privacy for a while longer. When Zach ends the conversation, he says, “I need to go, too.”

They carefully switch places. Auston says, “We probably need to drive straight through as much as possible.”

“We can take turns,” Zach says. 

It’s sensible, and yet Auston feels strange throughout his shift. Dylan’s propped against him, reassuringly warm. The weight of him is anchoring and baffling, and each time Auston closes his eyes, he thinks about what it felt like to drive that knife through clothes, skin and muscle.

It’s not real. He jerks out of his doze, and Zach’s eyes catch his in the rearview. 

“Okay?” Zach calls back.

“Yeah. Just a chill,” Auston says. 

They make a valiant effort to press on until morning. It seems more dangerous to keep going by the middle of the night. Zach pulls off the 75 and takes them to a hotel that seems to have a lot of rooms and not a lot of parked cars. 

Auston does the honors of going in to book the room. There’s just one man at the front desk, and Auston greets him politely. He hands over cash to pay and asks, “Can we have one that doesn’t face east? The sun’s up so soon, you know?”

“Oh, yeah. Sure,” the guy says. Rob.

“Thanks, Rob, man,” Auston says. 

They take the car around the back of the hotel. It’s much easier to carry Dylan from the back seat into the room without worrying about suspicious onlookers this way. Leaving too late into the morning could get riskier, but they should at least be able to recharge for a few hours. 

After getting Dylan laid out on the bed, Auston says, “I’m gonna take a shower.” 

He still feels like he’s walking around covered in blood. The water pressure isn’t great, but the temperature is decent. He raises it until it’s nearly unbearable, scrubbing away the dirt and sweat and imagining he can erase as much of it as possible. Dylan, lifeless on the ground. Zach crying out like he’d been stabbed after all. Split second decisions. Auston coughs, imagining his spit comes up a little black from the smoke of the fire he started. He’s done a lot of damage tonight. 

The shower door sliding open surprises him. He turns his head, immediately bracing, but it’s Zach. He stands just outside of the shower stall and takes off his undershirt. His boxer briefs follow, and all Auston can do is blink away the water in his eyes, watching Zach move as he pleases. He steps inside the cramped space and Auston faces him, letting Zach stare at him for a long, quiet minute. 

Eventually, his eyes scan down. He touches Auston’s shoulder and says, “You’re getting red. You’re gonna burn yourself.” 

Reaching past Auston, he adjusts the spray. Auston doesn’t know what to say or do. Zach looks at him evenly when he’s satisfied, his palms flattening high on Auston’s abs, one pushing up over his chest. Water cascades down Auston’s back, and he feels somehow frozen, just waiting for Zach to take what he wants.

When he does, it’s simple: a hand on the back of Auston’s neck, pulling him nearer. Zach kisses him so gently that it feels like an illusion for split second, a half-breath between the first glance of Zach’s mouth and Auston parting his lips and letting him in. I love you, he thinks, once out of a million times, and he hopes Zach can taste it. 

“Thank you,” Zach murmurs. He repeats it once, Auston feeling the shape of the words as Zach tucks them against Auston’s mouth.

Part of Auston wants to cry. He brings his arms around Zach, hugging him. They rock slowly in the shower. “It was my turn.”

**

As a kid, Auston used to imagine that sports were his future. He was okay in school, but baseball and hockey had his heart. Last year, he couldn’t have pictured much of anything if someone asked. More highways, maybe. Zach in the passenger seat. As they reach the Michigan border, he tries to think about tomorrow and his mind comes up blank.

Niko and Brad are both sitting on the porch when they reach the house. They come down to the car and help get Dylan inside, marveling even as they carry him across the lawn. 

“The neighbors probably love seeing this,” Brad says.

“Don’t even joke,” Niko says. “Don’t worry. Nobody’s watching.” 

Niko examines Dylan inside while Brad keeps cursing in the kitchen, coming up with new and creative ways to express his complete surprise. “Three years. Z, it’s been _three years_. How the fuck are you not freaking out?” Brad says, and Zach shrugs. He keeps glancing in the direction of the guest room, his attention zeroed in on what’s happening down the hall.

“He might not wake up,” Zach says. “Because it’s been so long.”

Auston says, “His body’s held up this long. He’s a fighter.”

“Dylan’s alive. Fucking Christ.” Brad bounces on his heels, eyes slowly widening more and more. “Can you imagine when we tell his folks? Or Colin?”

Zach shakes his head. “Not until he opens his eyes. I don’t want to get them excited and then disappoint them.”

“Yeah, of course.” Brad covers his mouth, clearly hiding a grin behind it. “Fuck!” 

Niko comes out an hour later and says, “We should find a doctor to make a house call or something, but he seems alright, for the most part. My guess is this probably has to do with him being under so long. He just has to find his way out of it.”

“Are you sure?” Zach asks, a spark of hope evident in the way he sits taller in his chair.

“Hell no,” Niko says. “I don’t want to pretend it’s definite, but the charms aren’t picking up a curse. There is something around him, but it’s not at all, you know, predatory. He’s not being kept under. It could be remnants. The changeling’s dead. I think it should wear off.” 

Zach gets up and hugs Niko. The suddenness throws Niko off. He stumbles, bearing the brunt of Zach’s body, but Niko brings his arms up to embrace him, too. 

“You’re welcome, buddy.” Niko pats his back. “We’re all glad to have him back.”

**

Auston rarely sees Zach leave Dylan’s side after that. He spends lot of time in the guest room, talking to him and making sure the room doesn’t get too hot. Auston sees less of him aside from meals or on the nights Zach sleeps on the second couch in the living room instead of taking a sleeping bag to stay on the floor where Dylan is.

They bide time. Auston’s shoulder didn’t dislocate, but he managed to pull a muscle, so he spends a lot of days with it wrapped. He occupies his hands by cleaning their supplies and letting Niko teach him what he’s learned since the last time their stay in town lasted longer than a couple days. 

“I’ll teach you everything I know,” Niko says, spreading out his collection of charms and dark objects. “You’ll be better than me soon.”

Auston shakes his head, half-smiling. “You have more patience.”

“Yeah, but you guys might actually be here a while this time, huh?” Niko grins. “The whole gang together. We can at least all brag about being way ahead of Dylan.”

Chuckling half-heartedly, Auston says, “Yeah, maybe.”

Auston restocks, cleans and polishes every single piece of weaponry he has. His guns and knives are so clear and shiny he can almost see his reflection. He and Niko try to learn a curse-breaking technique with the dragon scales together, and Auston works on it so much that the movements start to feel more natural — his body less fatigued.

Niko raises his arms triumphantly when they complete the ritual together once, perfect unison. “If Dylan was knocked out by a nasty spell, oh man. We’d have him awake in no time.”

“How’s he doing?” Auston asks. 

“Hard to tell,” Niko says. “About the same. You’ve seen him.”

Auston hasn’t. He’s avoided that room. It isn’t particularly hard with how much Zach has made it his post, but Auston’s watched him, Brad and Niko all head in to visit. They check if he’s okay, still breathing. Sit with him. He hasn’t opened his eyes yet, but Brad swears he’s seen them move behind Dylan’s eyelids at times.

“Like he’s dreaming,” Brad had said. “Trust me. He’s on his way, I promise you.”

After three weeks, Auston has nothing else to clean. He feels restless and unsure of where to go. They still haven’t made the calls to update their families, because they don’t want to get anyone’s hopes too high. Brad and Zach’s parents had wanted them to let this go, move on. Letting people know they might have been successful should be definite, and Auston gets that, but it’s left him tangled in this in-between stage where he isn’t sure where he belongs.

**

Dylan opens his eyes on a Tuesday.

Auston expects to hear someone yell out to all of them when it happens, but instead he gets a text message from Niko while he’s sitting in the backyard. He nearly collides with Brad and Zach as he runs into the house. They practically step on each other to get to the room, and Niko’s grinning down at Dylan, saying, “You’re probably gonna have to piss really bad.”

“Dyl,” Zach says, pushing into the room ahead of them.

Niko looks up. “Hey, there he is.” He turns to Dylan again. “You know Z’s been waiting for you the most.”

Auston can see Dylan’s mouth move, trying to speak, but mostly what comes out is a broken sort of croak. Zach’s breath still breaks, like a twisted sob and sigh barely contained. Niko gets out of the chair by the bed so that Zach can take his place.

“Hey,” Zach says. He takes Dylan’s hand. “Can you feel this? Yeah? Auston’s here. And Brad.”

“Hey, buddy,” Auston says, the most he can really manage.

Brad says, “ _Finally_ ,” letting out a huge exhale. “I told you.”

Dylan’s still out of it, coming back to himself slowly. They gradually leave Zach to it, reducing the stimuli. Auston thought Zach was spending a lot of time in the guest room before, but now he doesn’t even leave to come get food. Brad starts taking him a plate when they make meals, sending in a little extra in hopes that Dylan will be able to get some of it down. 

Auston has a dream that night. There’s a knife in his hands. He stabs Dylan, but the body doesn’t shift this time. Dylan lies motionless on the ground, and Zach cries, asking, “What did you do?” over and over.

There’s a disgusting layer of sweat covering Auston when he jerks awake. No one’s come into the room. His heart pounds, but not waking up the house with outbursts has to be a plus. 

He takes a shower. It’s impossible to avoid the guest bedroom on his way to the second bathroom and back. The bedside lamp is dimmed but on, so he leans into the doorway. Zach’s sitting the chair, his head pillowed on his arms, clearly dozing. Dylan’s hand is on his head, resting gently. Auston almost ducks out again just as quickly, but Dylan’s head shifts, looking over. He blinks and lifts his fingers a little.

“Hi,” Auston says, keeping his volume low. “Can’t sleep?”

Dylan makes a noncommittal noise. “Slept 3 years.”

“You’re sounding better.” He looks better, too, the color coming back fully. It’s surprising. 

Dylan coughs. “They think it’s the — whatever had me. Its magic. Not as much atrophy.” 

The one favor he got out of all of this. Auston says, “That’s good, right? You’ll be on your feet quick.” He gestures. “Especially with him helping.”

Dylan pets Zach really lightly, barely any movement at all. “I told him to go to bed. He didn’t want to.”

“I don’t blame him,” Auston says. Zach spent nearly every night dreaming about having Dylan stolen away. Of course he doesn’t want to take his eyes off of him. Judging by the look on Dylan’s face, sort of amused and warm, Auston doesn’t think he’s all that bothered by Zach hovering. 

“Haven’t seen as much of you,” Dylan says. 

“Uh, you know. I didn’t want to add pressure.” Auston shrugs. He and Dylan were close before, but it’s different. He’s not Zach. Auston isn’t sure what he’s supposed to be now, caught in the middle. The guy that held Zach over until this could happen. “Do you remember much?”

“Mm-mm. Guess it’s better that way.” Dylan has to clear his throat again. He definitely sounds better than when he first woke, but Auston can tell it still doesn’t come easy, the timbre raspier than he’s familiar with. “Z said you pulled me out.”

Auston feels a phantom throb in his palm, the weight of a good silver blade.

“I mean, we both did.”

Dylan sighs. “Well. Thank you.” 

“Don’t mention it.” 

Auston breathes. He thinks about Dylan on the grass, Dylan behind glass. In Auston’s head they both have blood blooming out over their chests. 

He feels silly standing around with a towel around his waist now.

“Uhh. See you in morning, okay?” he says and walks off before Dylan can say anything else. 

Changing into fresh clothes doesn’t make him feel much calmer. Auston stays up through the rest of the night, staring at different artifacts in the room. Niko and Brad have collected an assortment of little treasures — spelled objects, strange heirlooms, maps and a host of other things people who’ve been involved with the kind of things they started hunting had had for years. They don’t know everything. They’re a ragtag group learning along the way, but they really only ever had one mission. 

He’s home now. 

As the sun starts to rise, Auston starts packing. He’s quiet about it, taking care not to bump around or pull the side door shut too hard as he goes in and out to the car. He separates weapons that are definitely his from things he knows are Zach’s. Anything he’s not sure about he moves into the house as well.

He’s making his last trip inside when Zach comes down the hall, into the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” he asks. He takes in the sight of Auston fully dressed, shoes on and tied. He steps back a couple paces to glance at the couch — sheets folded, room tidy. 

“I’m just—” Auston starts, but Zach’s already moving past him. The door behind Auston is cracked. Zach looks outside at the car, and Auston knows the trunk is still open. 

Zach’s brow is furrowed when he turns around. “Are you leaving?”

“I figure I would just — Dylan’s awake, so I thought I’d, uh, go to Arizona. See my family.” He hasn’t been back in a long time. Auston has a break, finally, from looking for trouble.

“Are you coming back?” Zach asks. 

Auston doesn’t know what to tell him. When he closes his eyes, he thinks about holding Zach after he wakes up screaming. He thinks about Dylan with a knife held over Zach, then dead on the ground. He thinks about Zach sleeping at Dylan’s side. 

“You guys are busy. Dylan’s still recovering,” Auston tries. “He needs your help, so I don’t want to be in the way of that.”

“You don’t think he needs you?” Zach asks. “You’re his friend. Having all of us here will help him readjust.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“Of course it is, we went through hell to get him—”

“I killed him,” Auston says. He can still hear the way Dylan gasped for air. “I had to wash his blood off my hands.”

Zach rears his head back a little. “That wasn’t him.”

“It felt like him.” 

“You thought he was gonna hurt me.” Zach steps closer, his hands coming out, but Auston dodges. He moves away just enough to stay out of reach.

“Looking at him makes me feel guilty.” Saying it feels impossible with the lump in his throat, but Auston’s glad he pushes past it. It’s not just that horrible Florida party. Several expressions run across Zach’s face, one after the other, too quick to pinpoint. “I can’t help him right now. He needs us to be there for him, not making him anxious.”

“Bailing isn't gonna help either.”

“It’s not just what happened on the coast,” Auston says. “You know. And I’m supposed to look him in the eye like it's nothing?”

Zach folds his arms. “You still shouldn’t leave us.”

“He has you guys.”

“We have to stick together.”

“Dylan doesn't need me here to—”

“What if I need you?” Zach interrupts.

Auston pauses, the rest of his fight crumbling. Zach looks… scared. He glances over his shoulder, and then leans in more. His voice drops to a whisper, urgent and small. “This isn’t easy for me. He’s not used to me, not like this. I was different before.”

“You're not serious.” Auston’s brain trips up. “He loves you.”

“He doesn’t know me anymore.” Zach blinks and huffs out a breath. “And you heard what they were saying down there, how this thing is bigger than that one place. I thought I just wanted him back, but I don’t know if now I’m supposed to, uh. Do we go back to normal? Just like that.” He snaps his fingers. “That easy? Auston, I don’t know what that looks like.” He covers his mouth, like he can shove the words back in. Zach curses under his breath and rubs a hand over his hair. “You can't run away because we—” He exhales in one quick huff, his shoulders deflating. “You _know_ me.”

Auston swallows again. The knot choking him doesn’t feel any smaller. Zach doesn’t rush him, chin lifted and hopeful. Auston thought Zach might be disappointed at him going, but he didn’t really expect it to be like this. He searches for more words, and when he can’t find them, he finally steps forward and touches Zach’s cheek. Zach whimpers as Auston kisses him, soft and mournful. 

“I really do want to see my family. My folks,” Auston says. He’s not trying to hurt Zach on purpose.

“But then come back,” Zach says. “Please, okay? I need you here.” He squeezes his eyes shut. “We just got everybody back in one place. You're part of this.”

Some part of Auston wants to say no. It’ll be hard to move on, but that shouldn’t be a bad thing. They had dreams before this. Maybe it’s better for them to forget the ways their world opened up and figure out how to be ordinary again. Teammates and schoolwork. When road trips meant something different.

But he nods, his mouth brushing over Zach’s again. He could tell Zach he loves him right now. He feels certain that it would be okay, but he doesn’t want it to mean goodbye. 

“I’ll text you when I stop for the night.”

“Yeah,” Zach says, as sullen as he ever really lets himself get. “Call me if you can’t sleep.”

Auston almost laughs. Zach’s right. They know each other. Me and you, he thinks, and kisses Zach’s forehead. 

“Tell Dylan he better be walking when I see him again.”

Zach snorts. “Don't challenge him. You know how he is.”

Yeah. Auston shrugs.

He doesn’t look back when he steps outside again. Having to do this with Zach watching is tricky enough. If he looks at him, Auston might not go. He misses his parents, his sister. His brain deserves a chance to sort through the clutter of his triumphs and sins. And, strangely, Auston misses the road. He misses the way his hands feel curling over the steering wheel.

Leaving feels imperative, but he’s come rushing back to Michigan for Zach before. He’s not naive enough to think that call won’t start tugging his bones north again. For now Auston shuts the trunk, starts the ignition. The radio’s playing a song he knows the words to.

He drives south.


End file.
